Tonsure into the Great Schema for Elena (Brooks)
On Thursday, the 24th of September, the feast of St Silouan the Athonite, Mother Elena (Brooks) was tonsured into the Great Schema by His Grace Bishop Augustine of Taldom. With the blessing of Metropolitan Jean and Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, the service took place at the parish of St Nicholas in Oxford, Diocese of Sourozh, Moscow Patriarch. In attendance was the parish priest, Father Stephen Platt, Hegumen Theophan (Willis), and several monks and nuns in support of Mother Elena.
The service commenced at 07:00 hours with Hegumen Theophan presenting Mother Helena to Bishop Augustine, along with Mother Sophronia from the Monastery of the Protecting Veil at Bussy in France. Mother Elena has embraced the highest stage of monastic life, taking the name Elena, renouncing all worldly things, and devoting herself completely to God. Elena has been a nun for almost all her adult life and, a significant part of that time, has been devoted to living a life as a recluse, devoting her time to prayer and the spiritual life. May God grant her many years.
Bishop Augustine addressed Mother Elena with these words –
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dearly beloved concelebrants, brothers, and sisters in Christ, and most especially, dear Mother Elena,
Today, the Church is enveloped in a double joy. We celebrate the feast of St Silouan the Athonite, that great 20th-century beacon of humility, and we witness a profound mystery of grace: the tonsure of our beloved sister to the Great and Angelic Schema.
For decades, Mother, you have walked the narrow path within the walls of the church. You have given your youth, your energy, and your entire strength to the Lord, serving Him with quiet devotion. Yet today, Christ does not say to you, “Well done, you have finished your work.” Instead, He invites you to go deeper into the desert of the heart. The Great Schema is not a spiritual retirement or a medal for long service; it is a second baptism. It is a new crucifixion, a total stripping away of the world, and a call to love as Christ loves.
There is no better guide for this new chapter of your hidden life than St Silouan. He was a simple monk who laboured in the monastery mill, yet he attained the heights of theology because he learned the meekness and lowliness of Christ’s heart. When St Silouan was drowning in despair, the Lord gave him that saving anchor: “Keep your mind in hell, and despair not.”
As you put on the heavy bridal garments of the Schema—the klobuk, the analavos, the paramandyas decorated with the instruments of the Passion—remember this paradox. To the world, the Schema looks like a tomb. But to those with eyes to see, it is the threshold of paradise.
- Keep your mind in the humility of repentance: Never trust in your own past virtues or decades of labor. Stand before God daily as a beginner.
- Despair not: Trust implicitly in the infinite, radiant mercy of the Bridegroom who has called you by name. St Silouan was renowned for his tears of intercession for the whole world. He wept for those who did not know God, crying out that all people might be saved. This is now your primary obedience, Mother. Behind your veil, hidden from human eyes, you are called to become an unquenchable flame of prayer. You must bear the sorrows, the wars, the sickness, and the spiritual darkness of our broken world in your heart, offering them up at the altar of your soul. As you step forward today to die to yourself once more, know that you do not walk alone. St Silouan stands with you. The Mother of God, who called him to Mount Athos, covers you with her protection. May the Lord grant you the grace to bear this cross with joy, that your soul may catch fire with the Holy Spirit, becoming a sanctuary of peace for the whole universe.
Through the prayers of our Holy Father Silouan, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
